The Blog
Guides, analysis and licensing advice for Windows, Office, Visual Studio and more — from the Software Supplies team.
Visual Studio 2026 Professional and JetBrains Rider are both serious, capable IDEs for .NET development. The question most UK developers are actually asking is a licensing one: pay once, or subscribe indefinitely? This guide cuts through the feature comparisons you can find anywhere and focuses on what matters — what each IDE does better, and […]
Whether you are a sole trader buying your first Office licence or a limited company equipping a small team, the right version depends less on which apps you need and more on how your business is structured and how your people work. This guide cuts through the options. Perpetual Licences — Instant UK Delivery Buy […]
If you’ve already decided you want a genuine copy of Microsoft Office and you’re not interested in a subscription, there’s a short price ladder to understand. The cheapest legitimate route in the UK starts at £92 for a full suite. What separates the options is which apps you get, and whether the price difference is […]
The Secure Boot certificates installed in most Windows PCs since 2011 are expiring this month. The first deadline is 24 June 2026. Your computer will not stop working. But if the certificate update fails silently, your machine will gradually lose the ability to receive boot-level security patches — without any obvious sign that something has […]
Microsoft 365 will keep your apps working for a short window after cancellation, then move everything to read-only mode. Your OneDrive files become inaccessible after 30 days if you’re above the free 5GB tier. Your email history stays in Outlook — but only if you’ve exported it first. Do these things in the right order […]
Asana, Monday.com, and ClickUp are excellent tools. Microsoft Project 2024 is a different kind of tool entirely. The comparison only gets useful once you understand that distinction — because buying the wrong one wastes time and money regardless of which way you get it wrong. Here’s what each does well, where each breaks down, and […]
Project Professional 2024 activates via setup.microsoft.com — the same portal used by Office Home & Business, not the Volume Licensing Service Centre used by Office Pro Plus. Get that distinction wrong at the start and the process stalls immediately. This is the complete activation walkthrough for Windows, what to do if anything goes wrong, and […]